Mediagazer: Nexstar to Acquire Seven Grant Stations For $87.5 Million (Michael Malone/Broadcasting & Cable)

7:35 PM ET, November 6, 2013

Top News:

Blockbuster to End Domestic Retail, DVD By Mail Services — Blockbuster to close remaining U.S. company-owned stores, DVD By Mail services by early-January 2014 — ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Nov 06, 2013 (BUSINESS WIRE) —Franchised and licensed stores in the U.S. and abroad to remain open for business

Discussion: Businessweek, Home Media Magazine, TechCrunch, Forbes, Bloomberg, VatorNews, Online NewsHour, Broadcasting & Cable, Los Angeles Times, Corporate Intelligence, /Film, @thesportshernia, Betabeat, @shaliniwsj, @daveshaw00, bizjournals, Business Insider and Gigaom

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Internet Kills the Video Store — Blockbuster, which had more than 9,000 retail stores across America nine short years ago, will close the few hundred video-rental stores that it still has, the company's owner, Dish Network, said Wednesday in a bittersweet but long-expected announcement.

Discussion: AdAge, TeleRead, @mrbradchase, @kevinselle and @johncfierce

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Time Inc. Spinoff Timing Delayed — It looks like Time Inc. CEO Joe Ripp will have some more time to prepare for the publisher's spinoff from Time Warner. The split is now expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2014, Time Warner chairman Jeff Bewkes said during an earnings conference call.

Discussion: BuzzFeed, FishbowlNY, Business Wire and AllThingsD

David Lieberman / Deadline.com:

Jeff Bewkes: HBO's Streaming Deal With Comcast Won't Promote Cord Cutting — Time Warner startled a lot of people recently when it allowed the No. 1 cable operator to include HBO Go in a new $40 a month broadband service. Wouldn't some consumers cancel their pay TV service if they found …

Discussion: The Verge and Gigaom

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg:
Time Warner's Profit Tops Estimates as Network Revenue Gains

Discussion: Reuters

Tim Molloy / The Wrap:

Earnings: CBS Meets Q3 Expectations After Time Warner Cable Fight — CBS Corp. emerged from its third-quarter fight with Time Warner Cable matching Wall Street's earnings expectations. — CBS CEO Les Moonves told investors in a conference call that the success reflected the network's emphasis on content.

Discussion: Radio & Television …, Forbes, Variety, Deadline.com, Los Angeles Times, @samgustin, @emilysteel, @jboorstin and PR Newswire

Alistair Barr / USA Today:

Amazon cozies up to book stores to sell Kindle devices — Amazon executive says new Amazon Source program will help physical stores be more relevant to customers. But Amazon needs physical store partners too — CONNECT — Amazon.com is turning to some of its natural rivals …

Discussion: Amazon.com, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Publishers Weekly, @tcarmody, AllThingsD and The Next Web

Jack Marshall / Digiday:

How BuzzFeed Gives Native Ads a Traffic Boost — The story of modern media is wrapped up in this situation: “Native advertising” sometimes needs its own advertising for people to see it. — The problem with advertiser content on BuzzFeed and other publisher sites is that users just aren't always eager to consume it.

Discussion: @jbenton, @juliancole, @raju, @antderosa and @digiday

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Michael Bloomberg's post-mayoral day-job will be at Bloomberg View — Michael Bloomberg is getting back into the media business. — The outgoing three-term mayor of New York is planning to return to his namesake Bloomberg L.P. in a role that will see him primarily involved in its online opinion offering …

Discussion: Mediaite, The Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo, @jamilsmith, @themarkberman, @kevinroose and Talking Biz News

Ed Pilkington / Guardian:

Tim Berners-Lee: encryption cracking by spy agencies ‘appalling and foolish’ — Inventor of world wide web calls for debate about ‘dysfunctional and unaccountable’ oversight of NSA and GCHQ — Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the computer scientist who created the world wide web, has called for a …

Discussion: @genn4dy

Sarah Marshall / Journalism.co.uk:

How geolocation is being used to promote magazine apps — Music Week is now free when downloaded from Abbey Road and The Gooner is free at the Emirates Stadium — Copyright: Image courtesy of Exact Editions — Exact Editions, which packages magazine apps for publishers …

Discussion: Exact Editions and @niemanlab

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

Sunday People launches seven-day Buzzfeed-style website entirely funded by ‘native advertising’ — Trinity Mirror today launched a stand-alone seven-day website for the Sunday People which is entirely funded by ‘native advertising’. — This means that the site will carry no display advertising …

Discussion: The Drum

Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The newsonomics of the shopping of Press+ and the coming of Paywalls 2.0 — In April 2009, when Journalism Online began operations, its business — providing the backend for websites offering different kinds of paywalls — was largely derided. Two years later, when the company …

Discussion: Yahoo! Finance and Big News Network.com

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

TV Discovery Startup i.TV Acquires GetGlue In Second-Screen App Mashup — Provo, Utah-based video discovery startup i.TV has acquired GetGlue, we've learned, as consolidation in the market for second-screen or companion TV apps continues. The acquisition, which is expected to be announced soon …

Discussion: AdAge, The Wrap, Mashable, i.TV, Lost Remote, Variety, Digital TV Europe and Broadcasting & Cable

Reuters:

Al Qaeda-Linked Militants Claim Murder Of French Journalists In Mali — Mauritanian news website Sahara Medias said on Wednesday it had received a claim from al Qaeda-linked militants for the killing at the weekend of two French journalists in northern Mali.

Discussion: Poynter

Reporters Without Borders: Mali - Dim prospects for media freedom in north after French journalists' murder

Ryan Chittum / Columbia Journalism Review:

The NYT paywall plugs the hole — Charting the state of The New York Times — Felix asks what my graph of New York Times digital revenue would look like including print ads. — Here's the original chart, which shows the paywall doubling NYT digital revenue in just over two years:

Discussion: @jamesrbuk and @niemanlab

Malin Rising / Associated Press:

Swedish cinemas take aim at gender bias with Bechdel test rating — Movies need to pass test that gauges the active presence of women on screen in bid to promote gender equality — You expect movie ratings to tell you whether a film contains nudity, sex, profanity or violence.

Discussion: Online NewsHour, Guardian, Co.Create, The Atlantic Wire, Telegraph, The Verge, Boing Boing and @weldonwk

Politico:

Rand Paul meets with Rupert Murdoch, Roger Ailes — Sen. Rand Paul, who's made no secret of exploring a 2016 presidential run, recently met privately with News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch and Fox News head Roger Ailes, POLITICO has learned. — The meetings — Paul sat down with each man separately …

Discussion: @tommcilroy

Thomas Grove / Reuters:

Russia apologizes to Norwegian journalists held on Olympic trip — (Reuters) - Russia apologized on Wednesday to two foreign journalists who were repeatedly questioned and detained by police during a trip to report on the 2014 Winter Olympics preparations in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Discussion: Forbes, @miriamelder, Big News Network.com and hrw.org/rss/news

Darren Boyle / Press Gazette:

Mirror group newspapers ‘habitually used phone-hacking’ High Court documents released today claim — A senior Mirror Group journalist “regularly paid” £125 for mobile phone numbers and pin codes from a private detective, High Court documents lodged by the alleged victims released today claim.